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Feature Comics Vol 1 45
Supporting Characters: * Antagonists: * Don Hernandez * Sancho * Chico * giant henchman * at least two other henchman Other Characters: * Donna Isabella * her wealthy-looking guests * townspeople of Dorado Locations: * ** Dorado Items: * strongbox full of antique jewelry Vehicles: * Darrel's open-top roadster Animals: * Rivera, Sancho's burro | StoryTitle3 = Rance Keane: "The Seagoing Hellcat" | Synopsis3 = In San Francisco, Shark Egan's girlfriend Mary McDermot gets kidnapped by Red Mack and One Eye, and rescued by Rance Keene, with help from Rance's friend Peewee Lee and Mary's friend Kanaka Lew. Mack and One Eye get away, unpursued. Peewee involuntarily gets his handlebar mustache shaved off by a knife-wielding island-native. | Writer3_1 = William Smith | Penciler3_1 = William Smith | Inker3_1 = William Smith | Appearing3 = Featured Characters: * Supporting Characters: * Peewee Lee Antagonists: * Red Mack * One Eye Other Characters: * Harvey Topping * Mary McDermot * Kanaka Lew * Shark Egan Locations: * Waterfront Vehicles: * Egan's schooner "Corsair" | Writer4_1 = Toni Blum | Penciler4_1 = Al Bryant | Inker4_1 = Al Bryant | StoryTitle4 = Zero, Ghost Detective: "The Ghostly Wreckers of Danger Isle" | Synopsis4 = A crew of Ghost Pirates has taken over Danger Isle and its lighthouse, and used fake danger lights to steer merchant ships onto the Isle's jagged reefs. Zero is called in by the shipping company's president James Darby. Local fishermen won't go near the haunted lighthouse, so Zero has to charter an airplane, and land atop the lighthouse via rope-ladder. This happens in broad daylight. He finds nobody there, but he knows a freighter is due to pass by at midnight, so he waits. He sees nobody enter the lighthouse, but suddenly the big lamp is lit; peering inside, Zero sees shadowy sailors in tattered antique garb. Zero sneaks inside, and very luckily finds a pile of sailcloth, grabs a sheet, and uses it to douse the lighthouse beacon. The ghostly seamen greatly outnumber and outfight Zero, and throw him down the tower's central circular staircase. Just short of hitting the bottom of the shaft, Zero is caught by another ghost, an old time enemy of the pirate crew with a long-standing grudge to settle. Together they sneak up the very tall staircase, then just before it's time to enter the top part, the ghostly bosun hands Zero some fingerbones, from this same crew of ghosts. Zero knows just what to do with these, and while the good ghost mixes it up with the bad ghosts, Zero rushes into their midst and shows them the fingerbones, crossed, in the palms of his hands. This completely horrifies them, and they streak off into the sky on their final journey. The ghostly bosun vows to stick around that lighthouse and guard it from now on. | Appearing4 = Featured Characters: * Antagonists: * Ghost pirates Other Characters: * James Darby, Pres. Darby Shipping Co. * a ghostly boatswain Locations: * Danger Isle Items: * pirate fingerbones Vehicles: * merchant ships | StoryTitle5 = Reynolds of the Mounted: "Island of the Druids" | Synopsis5 = Johnny Westlake, the radium heir, gets shipwrecked, in a remote North Atlantic island-group, and Sgt. Jim Reynolds, RCMP, is sent to bring him back. Hours later, Reynolds approaches the looming islands in a small open boat. An unexpected whirlpool yanks the little boat off course and smashes it on some rocks, with Reynolds falling onto the shore of an island and getting knocked unconscious in the process. Johnny Westlake and Pierre DuLac find him and take him to Pierre's cabin. That night Jim and Johnny leave to examine an ancient Druid cave, at the far end of the island, and DuLac's sinister assistant Gaspard shadows them. Among the grotesque rocks outside the cave, they find, and Johnny recognizes, the fisherman who recently found a nugget of gold on this island; he's been stabbed and shot, and is very frightened by "the Druid Terror", and warns them to stay away from the cave, then he dies. Johnny tells Jim the Druid legend of the great temple that had once been here, ruled by an evil sorceress, destroyed when the whole city sank into the sea, leaving only this accursed cave, which the local people all shun. They enter the cave, and the air is very bad because of some underground gas, then they find themselves inside a large and ornate Druid temple. But before they can even get a good look at it, there's a rockslide, and they have to flee the cave. Johnny makes it outside, where he gets jumped by a small angry mob of local fishermen, who are very upset that this interloper is stirring up the Druid curse and endangering their settlement. The main accuser is Gaspard. Just then a big explosion rocks the island, so obviously the Druid gods are very angry and they had better get appeased with a human sacrifice right way, so the mob gets ready to burn Westlake alive. Meanwhile back in the cave, Sgt. Reynolds has figured out that the rockslide and explosion were rigged-up tricks, and works his way back into the big temple room, where's he's jumped on and fought with by one dagger-wielding man, who turns out to be Pierre DuLac, and who brags in detail about how clever his scheme is, while he's still fighting the Mountie. Reynolds punches out DuLac and drags him out of the cave, then runs over to the sacrifice site and punches out Gaspard, grabs his torch, and flings it into the gas-filled cave, then everybody runs away. After a few moments, the cave blows up, so the Druid gold is now lost forever. | Writer5_1 = Art Pinajian | Penciler5_1 = Art Pinajian | Inker5_1 = Art Pinajian | Appearing5 = Featured Characters: * Supporting Characters: * ** Reynolds' boss Antagonists: * Pierre DuLac * Gaspard Other Characters: * Johnny Westlake * unnamed local fisherman Locations: * group of islands between Newfoundland and Greenland ** Druid's Cave Island Vehicles: * Westlake's ketch | StoryTitle6 = Samar: "The Hyena-Men" | Synopsis6 = Hyena-Men attack Samar's friends the Jungle Pygmies. He fights his way past some crocodiles and hippos to reach the Pygmy village, then attacks the Hyena-Men, including their boss's attack hyena. Also a trio of rhinos randomly charges into the war party of Hyena-Men, scattering them. But when Samar and Gal and Ovani get to the Pygmy village, it has been burned down. But the people have all retreated into nearby caves. Then a rockslide bottles them all up, with Samar, inside the cave; the Hyena-Men have rallied and are reattacking. The pygmies lead Samar to the other end of the cave, where there's an opening by the river, where they keep their war canoes. They thus outflank the Hyena-Men, except that Samar briefly gets captured, but breaks free, and escapes in a canoe. When the Hyena-Men in their own canoes pursue him, Samar tricks them into getting too close to some rapids, and they get sucked along by the rushing current towards a waterfall downstream. The Pygmies invite Samar to their big victory feast. | Writer6_1 = | Penciler6_1 = Max Elkan | Inker6_1 = Max Elkan | Appearing6 = Featured Characters: * Supporting Characters: * Gal * Ovani Antagonists: * giant renegade Arab ** his pet hyena * the Hyena Men Other Characters: * Pygmies Locations: * Pygmy Village ** Caves beneath the village Vehicles: * dugout canoes | StoryTitle7 = Lala Palooza | Synopsis7 = (newspaper strip reprints) | Writer7_1 = | Penciler7_1 = John Devlin | Inker7_1 = John Devlin | Appearing7 = Featured Characters: * Lala Palooza Supporting Characters: * Vincent Palooza | StoryTitle8 = Capt. Bruce Blackburn, Counterspy: "Double Double" | Synopsis8 = Thefts of manganese ore are disrupting production of sheet duralumin at the Farnum Sheet Metal Company. Army Intelligence is called in, and Captain Bruce Blackburn is sent to investigate. Early in their introductory conversation, Company President William Farnum makes several missteps, and Blackburn begins to (correctly) suspect that he's in on the thefts. That night, Lt. Jackson, impersonating Capt. Blackburn, revisits Farnum at the main sheet metal plant, while Blackburn parachute-drops onto the roof of another Farnum plant, in Aspers, PA. He's able to eavesdrop, through a skylight, on Farnum's foreman Byrne, as he receives instructions from Farnum to proceed with that night's manganese theft. Then Blackburn slips on the wet gravel rooftop and falls to the ground, where Byrne and one henchman quickly find and disarm him. More henchmen gather. Byrne is very surprised and unhappy to see that the intruder is Capt. Blackburn, having just now been reassured that Blackburn was 100 miles away. Blackburn takes this opportunity to plant the idea that Byrne is being double-crossed by Farnum; Byrne falls for it. Blackburn pretends to have reinforcements, punches Byrne, doesn't manage to swipe his pistol, sprints away, and grabs a length of pipe for a weapon. But most or all of his pursuers break off the chase; they're on a tight schedule and need to get a gondola car loaded with stolen manganese right away. Blackburn hides in the next empty car in the same train, but is spotted. Byrne directs the engineer to pull the train forward, and dumps a load of manganese ore into Blackburn's car. This somehow fails to kill him, and Blackburn is able to poke the pipe above the top of the load and breathe through it, and eavesdrop, while the bad guys audibly remind one another that their plan is to take the ore to abandoned Dirgo Field, load it onto an airplane, and fly it to Mexico. Blackburn scrambles to the surface of the freightcar-load of ore, and is again spotted by the bad guys, who start shooting, but he's able to jump off the train, as it goes across a bridge, and into the river below. Ten minutes later, Blackburn pulls himself out of the river, makes his way to a farmhouse, and calls Army Intelligence. Thirty minutes later, a dozen Army aircraft are swooping in on Dirgo Airfield. The next morning at Colonel Jordan's office, Blackburn recaps these events, then Jackson comes in with two Willard Farnums, the real one and a battered imposter. But Byrne has escaped the air-raid at Dirgo and followed Jackson and Farnum to Washington, and now bursts into the room with a handgun, with which he shoots and kills the fake Farnum (that double-crosser), then shoots and kills himself. | Writer8_1 = Harry Campbell | Penciler8_1 = Harry Campbell | Inker8_1 = Harry Campbell | Appearing8 = Featured Characters: * Supporting Characters: * Colonel Jordan, Blackburn's boss * Lieutenant Jackson, Blackburn's double Antagonists: * Willard Farnum, actually an unnamed impostor * Byrne, foreman ** several henchmen Other Characters: * Willard Farnum, real Locations: * ** Army Intelligence Headquarters * Farnum Sheet Metal plants ** one at Aspers, Pennsylvania ** one 100 miles away from that one * Dirgo Airfield Items: * shipment of manganese ore Vehicles: * freight train | Writer9_1 = | Penciler9_1 = Maurice Gutwirth | Inker9_1 = Maurice Gutwirth | StoryTitle9 = USA, the Spirit of Old Glory: "Attack On Trialaska" | Synopsis9 = A horde of refugees flees the island town of Trialaska, driven out by a poison gas attack, trudging on foot across a barren waste. USA is alerted to this when her magic 13-star Revolutionary Flag droops, and suddenly she appears in the deserted town, then surveys the seascape from a rocky promontory. She soon spots an enemy warship, and when she flies near it, there's antiaircraft fire. USA points at the ship with the Torch of Liberty, and it snaps in half and sinks. USA seeks out the town's people, hiding in the nearby woods, and she hands out some threads from her magic flag, and promises to help. Using her magic torch as a radio, she broadcasts an emergency call, which is relayed onward for her by "two powerful friends". Meanwhile the foreign power's top general is ordering his underlings to attack the island immediately, sparing nothing. Soon a second warship approaches Trialaska. USA flies out and stealthily boards it, gets into a munitions locker and steals some gunpowder from it, then sneaks into the pantry of the Officers' Lounge and adds gunpowder to some of their wine, and finally steals some food from the galley, for the refugees, before flying back to the woods. In the raiding ship's wardroom, the officers toast their upcoming success, and drink the gunpowder wine. They all go mad, and they decide that their own enlisted men have poisoned the wine. A great deal of shooting follows, and some fires break out. One of the last few surviving officers shoots at one of the last few surviving enlisted men, misses, and instead hits a powder magazine, blowing up the ship severely enough that it begins to sink. Two warships arrive, one American and one Canadian, and USA helps the displaced villagers return to their homes, delivering a rousing speech the whole time. | Appearing9 = Featured Characters: * Antagonists: * unidentified foreign naval forces Locations: * ** Trialaska Items: * 13-star Revolutionary Flag * Torch of Liberty Vehicles: * unidentified foreign warships * U.S. and Canadian warships | StoryTitle10 = Rusty Ryan: "Enter: The Boyville Brigadiers" | Synopsis10 = Some tough new kids with big city accents get admitted to Boyville School, and turn out to be fifth columnist hoods, led by Baby-face Malone. Their mission is to set up a phony youth movement. To oppose them, Rusty and his four pals organize themselves as the Boyville Brigadiers, and use modified football jerseys for uniforms. After a brisk fistfight, the infiltrators are turned over to the local sheriff. | Writer10_1 = Paul Gustavson | Penciler10_1 = Paul Gustavson | Letterer10_1 = Paul Gustavson | Inker10_1 = Paul Gustavson | Appearing10 = Featured Characters: * Supporting Characters: * Cappy, Boyville Supervisor * The Boyville Brigadiers ** Smiley Scott ** Ed ** Whitey ** Scotty Antagonists: * : * Hans Lieber ** Baby-face Malone, of Chicago ** two more delinquent punks Locations: * Boyville School | StoryTitle11 = Big Top | Synopsis11 = (newspaper strip reprints) | Writer11_1 = | Penciler11_1 = John Devlin | Inker11_1 = John Devlin | Appearing11 = Characters: * Butch the clown * Butch's boss * the dentist * a parrot vendor * a parrot | StoryTitle12 = Dusty Dane: "Shanghaied By Captain Snyde" | Synopsis12 = In a South Pacific Port, Dusty Dane's friend Big Mike Cardigan gets head-konked with a blackjack, and kidnapped, by Captain Snyde's henchman Crimpy. Dusty arrives in time to see him get carried aboard the Akimbra, a rusty old tramp steamer, and rushes aboard it. There's a fistfight which ends when Captain Snyde head-konks Dusty with a thrown belaying pin. They've been shanghaied into virtual maritime slavery, along with several other seamen. After three days at sea, there's a confrontation between some crewmen and Captain Snyde, who shoots one guy dead right on the spot. That night there's more trouble, as another crewman, Limey, inadvertently learns that the cargo of rum is really bottled water, then gets shot dead. But soon Mike and Dusty arrive in the hold, and figure out about half of the bad guys' scheme, then Captain Snyde shows up and gloatingly reveals the rest of it: the cargo of "rum" is heavily insured, and the ship is about to have a terrible "accident" and sink with almost all hands still aboard. He then departs in a motor launch, and doesn't even take Bucko with him. The shipboard lifeboats all have their bottoms stove in, and then Snyde's dynamite charge blows open the hull. Two days later, in the Marine Insurance Company office, Dusty and Mike show up just in time to stop Capt. Snyde from collecting seventy-five thousand dollars. They survived by using hatch covers for life rafts. Snyde whips out a pistol but Dusty knocks him out with a single punch. Authorities are called. Mike and Dusty leave the office and right away encounter Crimpy, the waterfront sailor-abductor, and throw him into the harbor. | Writer12_1 = Vernon Henkel | Penciler12_1 = Vernon Henkel | Inker12_1 = Vernon Henkel | Appearing12 = Featured Characters: * Supporting Characters: * Big Mike Cardigan Antagonists: * Captain Snyde * Bucko * Crimpy Other Characters: * Limey * other shanghaied crewmen Locations: * a South Seas port Vehicles: * the Akimbra, a tramp steamer | StoryTitle13 = Mickey Finn | Synopsis13 = (newspaper strip reprints) | Writer13_1 = Lank Leonard | Penciler13_1 = Lank Leonard | Inker13_1 = Lank Leonard | Appearing13 = Featured Characters: * Mickey Finn Other Characters: * Widow Burns * Uncle Phil * O'Shea * O'Doul * Clancy * Sonny * Johnny Buckley * Uncle Owney | StoryTitle14 = Spin Shaw: "The Aerial Spy" | Synopsis14 = Captain S.R. "Spin" Shaw is having his silver warplane fueled and serviced at a new U.S. Naval Air Base in the West Indies when he hears, then spots, a red fighter plane with German markings, flying overhead. Spin takes off in an experimental aircraft; it climbs really fast and is soon in pursuit of the intruder, which it not only overtakes but glancingly hits. Both planes fall into the ocean. For the moment, they remain afloat. The German pilot has been photographing the new airbase, and Spin tells him he's under arrest. There's a fight, but Shaw knocks him out, and a P.T. boat soon arrives to take them both to base. Several hours later, back at Spin's regular base, Colonel Graves is very unhappy with the insubordinate and reckless Captain Shaw, for flying and wrecking the experimental plane, in violation of a direct order, and orders him grounded. On his way back to his quarters, by completely pure luck, Spin happens to spot the German pilot, apparently in mid-escape, stealing a car and fleeing the base. Spin jumps into his own sedan and pursues. The pilot stops at a telegraph office and sends a message; Spin simply asks Frank, the telegraph agent, where that message was sent (16 Ventura Boulevard), which turns out to be an address not far from the new airfield. Meanwhile the spy-pilot has gotten to City Airport and into a waiting getaway plane. When Colonel Graves gets this news, he directs Captain Shaw to take the remaining experimental plane and pursue him, plus gives dire warnings about the consequences of wrecking this plane. Spin encounters "six or seven" German planes and engages them, shooting down at least one. In the process, Capt. Shaw's plane is riddled with enemy fire, and it's looking sticky for him when a bunch of U.S. fighters show up. Presumably there's a great big dogfight after that, but the next thing we see is Colonel Graves grudgingly admitting that Captain Shaw has handled the situation pretty well, and sends him off on furlough. | Writer14_1 = | Penciler14_1 = Clark Williams | Inker14_1 = Clark Williams | Appearing14 = Featured Characters: * Supporting Characters: * Colonel Graves Antagonists: * unnamed spy * German pilots Other Characters: * Frank, telegraph agent Locations: * West Indies ** New Naval Air Base * 16 Ventura Boulevard * City Airport Vehicles: * Shaw's regular fighter plane * experimental new U.S. fighter planes, two of them * German camera plane * six or seven more German planes * P.T. boat A10 | Notes = * Doll Man: ** Martha and Doctor Roberts are absent from this story. ** Doll Man acts as if being buried in a garden is a real problem, but unless he's lost a great deal of his extreme strength, it should not be. ** Darrel Dane acts as if he believes that anonymously calling the local police, onto the local landlord and crime boss, will result in the boss being tried and imprisoned, and the jewelry returned to its owners. * Rusty Ryan: ** Boyville Brigadier uniforms very very strongly resemble Marvel's Captain America's first costume, minus the headpiece, plus jodphurs. In the story, they are home-made adaptations of the boys' own All-Star football jerseys. ** In the final panel Rusty breaks the fourth wall and addresses his readers: "Well, fellas... You know what us ''Brigadiers stand for... Now join us, wherever you may be, and keep our country strong!" * '''Spin Shaw': ** Captain Shaw is a grade O6 Navy officer; Colonel Graves is a grade O6 Army officer. Purely in terms of rank, they are peers; in terms of seniority, they are evidently not peers. ** Cover date is June 1941, and these "Jerry" pilots in their German-marked planes are committing acts of war. Despite this, the WWII will not officially start until December 1941. ** Between the last and next-to-last panels of this story, there's an encounter between U.S. and German fighter planes, whose outcome is neither shown nor described. * This issue of Feature Comics also featured: ** Poison Ivy: "Neck and Neck Movie Studios", by Gill Fox ** Homer Doodle and Son, by Arthur Beeman ** Dead End Island (text story), by Perry Scott | Trivia = | Recommended = | Links = * Feature Comics #45 June 1941, entire issue }}